TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 24? 



but whose products would mostly have to pass through the rehel territoiy to reach 

 Shanghai. A portion of the Eiu^opeans in China had exhausted damnifying epithets 

 in reference to the rebel character and proceedings. They were "bloodthirsty 

 brigands,'' &c. He was not an apologist of the rebels ; but he could not refrain 

 from asking himself how it was that tiie trade of Shanghai could have flourished 

 in the way it had done if the accusation that they were desolators and extermina- 

 tors were literally true. Annually increasing quantities of tea and silk could not be 

 produced from "howling wastes ;" and those products, if for the most part coming 

 from provinces imder Tai-tar rule, must have passed immolested through Taeping 

 territories, though as brigands they ought to have plundered them. The Taepings 

 professed to have a divine mission to extirpate the Tartars, their foreign rulers, and 

 to destroy idolati-y ; and in prosecuting these objects great atrocities no doubt had 

 been pei-petrated ;' but, in respect to the rm-al population as contra-distinguished 

 from the Tartars, the fact was patent, that when unexpectedly repulsed in then- 

 attack upon Shanghai, in August 1860, by French and English troops, although 

 exasperated by a sense of betrayal, in their retreat they left uninjured the standing 

 crops around Shanghai, and they did not molest Em-opeans. The natm-e of this 

 paper will not admit of the discussion of the conflicting opinions promulgated re- 

 specting the character and conduct equally of the rebels and of the Tartars. There 

 could be no doubt that they practised towards each other the most revolting atroci- 

 ties, such as were the usual accompaniments of civil war exasperated by religious 

 fanaticism. He could only consider the question in relation to the prospects of the 

 British trade with China. The expenditure of British blood and British treasure 

 in three successful wars had extorted from the Tartars all the facilities that the 

 British trader desired to have, leaving, however, in Tartar breasts a burning resent- 

 ment at the degi-adation of the Imperial government, and in Tartar officials a mani- 

 fest disposition to obstructive subterfuges in carrying out the treaty of Tien-tsin. 

 The Taepings or rebels on their part issued proclamations professing amity for 

 foreigners, calling them " Christian brethren," and inviting them to enter into 

 conmiercial relations, but with one exception. The traffic in opium they denounce 

 as a religious ordinance, and threaten the penalty of death to those who engage in 

 it. The tax-payers of England, therefore, would have to determine whether we 

 were to tiead in' our former steps, and, for one article of commerce, waste life and 

 money to force upon a reluctant people, for selfish gain, a deleterious product ; 

 while, at the same time, we crushed a national movement to throw off a foreign 

 oppression, which imder analogous circumstances in Europe had had our warmest 

 sympathy, and at the success of which all freemen rejoiced. 



On some Exceptional Articles of Commerce and Undesirable Sources of Revenue. 



By Chaeles Thompson. 

 The object of the paper was to show that the malting of barley and distUlation_ of 

 grain are the means of a great and serious waste of food, enhancing the scarcity 

 which is so injurious to the welfare of the people ; that the liquor traffic and the 

 drinking usages it promotes are ban'iers between our wants and an abimdant supply 

 of food, and that, by passing " the admirable suggestion of the United Kingdom 

 AUiance, endoised "by Lord Brougham, and hailed by popular acclamation 

 everj-where," a Penni's.sive Bill to enable a large majority in any district to suppress 

 the common sale of intoxicating liquors, parliament would legislate on principles 

 of social justice, soimd political economy, and sagacious statesmanship. The writer, 

 in conclusion, remarked as follows : — "That the food of a people is their life — the 

 means of their existence ; and that whatever tends to render human food scarce in 

 quantity, or to deteriorate its nutritious quality, or converts it into an element of 

 mischief and disease, must be anti-social, immoral, irrational, and highly criminal. 

 Keason, morals, political economy, and social science, all concur in condemnation of 

 any system that inevitably destroys that which is essential to the life, the health, 

 and the happiness of the people. " To destroy food is, in effect, to destroy that life 

 and health and happiness that food sustai ns. Hence, it becomes one of the first 

 duties of statesmanship to provide and to h usband the means of subsistence. It is 

 said in a revered book, "He that withhoJc?eth com, the people shall curse him;" 

 and the instincts of humanity respond to that saying. But if it is wicked and 



